Six of the Best 582

George Osborne's budget announced the biggest appropriation of Church land since the Reformation, as John Elledge demonstrates.

"As anyone involved in the fight to save London’s council housing knows, the boroughs at the forefront of the social cleansing of our city over the last fifteen years are Labour boroughs." Architects for Social Housing are not taken in by Labour's rhetoric.

Michael Gerson says the Republicans are staining themselves by sticking with Donald Trump. 

Exposure to nature makes people happy and could cut mental health inequalities between the rich and poor, argues Natasha Gilbert.

The decline of Ricky Gervais is itemised by Joe Bish.

Dirty Feed shows that the first episode of Fawlty Towers was originally filmed as a pilot. That version differs significantly from the broadcast version: "In the reshot section, Danny’s grapefruit is far larger and has a cherry on top, compared to the rather meagre offer on display once we cut to the wide shot." Such obsession is to be applauded.

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The loss of 54-58 London Road, Leicester

After photographing the former Black Boy pub last Saturday I wrote:

I get the impression that most Labour councillors would be entirely content if the city consisted entirely of newly built supermarkets and blocks of student accommodation.

The truth is worse than that. The city council's policy is to see historic, characterful buildings demolished and replace by student accommodation.

At the end of last year the council voted to allow developers to demolish the oldest buildings on London and replace them with a seven-storey block of, you guessed it, student accommodation.

According to a Leicester Mercury report at the time:

The planning official's report had said the current buildings offer a "neutral" contribution to the street – the massive new block, meanwhile, "will make a positive contribution".

An earlier Mercury report quoted the developer's agent argument in favour of demolition:

"The buildings as you see them from London Road are not as they were originally."

Few buildings of any age are as they were originally. That is part of what makes them interesting.

Put those two quotes together and you will see that any building in the city that is not Listed could be demolished and replaced with student accommodation with the blessing of its council.

The Mercury (back to the first Mercury article made the effort to go and look at 54-58 London Road and talk to the current occupants:

Mr Azim Walters is a defence lawyer with a handsome office at 58 London Road, but, as you may be aware, his Georgian building, along with neighbouring properties at 52, 54 and 56, are now on borrowed time. 

"We don't want it demolished, for historic reasons," he says. 

Set a little way off the busy city centre street, the elegant brick and stone-fronted business was once office and home to city father Arthur Wakerley – social reformer, architect and Leicester's youngest mayor – and it doesn't end there. The building was also one of the first magistrate courts in Leicester. 

"Come on, I'll show you," says Mr Walters, enthusiastically leading the way through a busy office and down into a large dingy cellar into a room generously scattered with detritus. 

"I was told by the historian, who looked around, these were the cells and those doors," he says, pointing to the other side of the room, "that's where they took them up the stairs. This is a historical building. People don't realise the history of it."

Yesterday, which was when I took these photographs, the Mercury ran a feature on the buildings the city lost in the 1960s and their shoddy replacements.

I fear that future generations will be as dismayed by the choices we are making as were are at those made 50 years ago.

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Why is the BBC convinced that everyone loves Manchester United?

This afternoon, as I do every Sunday, I went over to my mother's house to cook her a meal.

I generally listen to the repeat of Choral Evensong on Radio 3. The music is sublime and the Old Testament lessons often barking mad, so it's great entertainment all round.

Today, after it was over, I switched to Five Live to see how Spurs were getting on in their attempt to catch Leicester City.

But Spurs were not on Five Live. You needed their Sports Extra channel to listen to that game. Five Live itself had the Manchester derby - the battle for fourth place, if you are being generous.

This is of a pattern with the BBC's conviction that everyone in the country loves Manchester United.

I can even recall Match of the Day deciding,n during the club's prime under Alex Ferguson, that every goal in its Goal of the Year competition should be from a United player. How other clubs' fans loved that!

There was a short period when Chelsea were cruising to their second title during Jose Mourinho's first coming when the BBC recognised that we were the leading team in the country. You could rely on Chelsea being the commentary game on Five Live and being first on Match of the Day.

Then we slipped a little. The BBC immediately pounced and restored Manchester United to first place in its affections.

Why this obsession? Maybe it's half-memories of the Munich disaster or of United winning the European Cup in 1968.

More likely it is because BBC staff live in Surrey like so many of the club's fans.

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England grand slams and Market Harborough

Yesterday England won their first grand slam for 13 years.

Their team contained a product of my old school in Market Harborough, now called the Robert Smyth Academy, in the shape of Dan Cole.

Back in 2003 it did too - the captain, Martin Johnson.

That is quite an achievement for a small-town comprehensive.

In my day the best sportsman in the school, a couple of years below us, was a footballer. That was Andy Peake, who went on to play for Leicester City in the old first division.

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